King Charles III and Queen Camilla come to sydney was the first visit to Australia by a reigning king in more than a decade, a trip that has rekindled the debate about the nation’s constitutional links to Britain.
The iconic Sydney Opera House screen was lit up with images of previous royal visits to welcome the couple, whose six-day trip will be brief by royal standards. Charles, 75, is undergoing treatment for cancer, which has led to a reduced schedule.
Charles and Camilla were greeted in light rain at Sydney Airport by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, New South Wales state Premier Chris Minns and Australia’s viceroy, Governor-General Sam Mostyln.
Image by Victoria Jones/Shutterstock/Getty
Charles is only the second British monarch to visit Australia. mother, Queen Elizabeth IIfor the first time 70 years ago.
While the reception has been warm, Australian national and state leaders want the royal family removed from the constitution.
The monarchist hopes the visit will strengthen Australia’s relationship with its sovereign. Opponents hope to reject the concept that someone from the other side of the world is the Australian head of state.
The Australian Republican Movement, which is campaigning for Australians to replace the British monarch as head of state, likens royal visits to touring acts in the entertainment industry.
ARM this week launched what it calls the campaign “Wave Goodbye to Royal Reign with Monarchy: The Farewell Oz Tour!”
ARM chairman Esther Anatolitis said the royal visit to Australia was “the show that came to town.”
“Unfortunately, this is a reminder that Australian heads of state are not full-time, they are not Australians. They are part-time people based overseas who are heads of state in many places,” Anatolitis told the AP.
“We say to Charles and Camilla: ‘Welcome, we hope you enjoy our country and good health and spirits.’ But we also hope this is the last tour of a sitting Australian monarch and when he returns, we look forward to welcoming him as a visiting dignitary,” he added.
Philip Benwell, national chairman of the Monarchy League of Australia, which campaigns for Australia’s constitutional relationship with Britain to be preserved, expects the reaction to the royal couple to be overwhelmingly positive.
“Something like a royal visit brings the king closer in people’s minds, because we have a monarchy that doesn’t exist,” Benwell told the AP.
“The visit by the king brings home that Australia is a constitutional monarchy and has a king,” he said.
Benwell is critical of the prime ministers of all six countries, who have declined an invitation to attend a reception for Charles in the national capital of Canberra.
Each prime minister explained that they had more important engagements that day such as cabinet meetings and trips abroad.
“You have to be the prime minister in Canberra to meet them and pay them respects,” Benwell said. “Not attending can be considered a snub, because this is not a normal visit. This is the first visit of the king to Australia.”
Charles was drawn into the Australian republican debate months before his visit.
The Australian Republican Movement wrote to Charles last December asking for a meeting in Australia and for the king to support their cause. Buckingham Palace politely wrote back in March to say that royal meetings would be decided by the Australian government. The meeting with ARM does not appear on the official itinerary.
“Whether Australia is a republic is … a matter for the Australian public to decide,” the letter from Buckingham Palace said.
The Associated Press has seen copies of both letters.
Australians decided in a referendum in 1999 to keep Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. The result is generally attributed to disagreements over how to elect the president rather than majority support for the king.
After visiting Sydney and Canberra, which are 155 miles apart, Charles then traveled to Samoa to open the annual Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
When his mother made the last of her 16 trips to Australia in 2011 at the age of 85, she visited Canberra, Brisbane and Melbourne on the east coast before opening the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in the west coast city of Perth.
Elizabeth’s first grueling Australian tour at the age of 27 took in scores from far-flung Outback towns; about 75% of the nation’s population saw him.
Australia then had racially discriminatory policies favoring British immigrants. Immigration policy has been non-discriminatory since 1973.
Anatolitis notes that Australia is now more multicultural, with most of the population born overseas or with parents born overseas.
“In the 50s, we didn’t have the global connections that we have today,” he said.
In February, Buckingham Palace declare that Charles is being treated for an unspecific form of cancer, disclosing that it was discovered when doctors treated an enlarged prostate. After a break from public appearances for three months, Charles continued royal duty in April.
In March, Kensington Palace reported that Charles’ daughter-in-law, Catherine, Princess of Wales, have also been diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer found during abdominal surgery. In September, Catherine announced that he was done chemotherapy treatment, and “do what I can to stay cancer free now focus.”
